Harold Gay Stalnaker was born on 10 April 1923 in Grantsville, West Virginia. His father, Gay Stalnaker, and his mother, Amy Bell, were born in West Virginia, as well. The family lived in Roane County, West Virginia, where Gay worked as a bank cashier. The couple raised two sons and four daughters.

Harold Gay Stalnaker was the couple’s elder son. Harold graduated from Spencer High School in West Virginia and then worked for the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company. He became engaged to Emelene Waldeck.

Harold Gay Stalnaker enlisted in the Army Air Corps on 3 November 1942 at Charleston, West Virginia. He trained at Moore Field in Texas and at Bruning Army Air Field in Nebraska.

Harold Gay Stalnaker served as a First Lieutenant in the 366th Fighter Squadron, 358th Fighter Group. He flew over ninety missions in Europe. He was based at Toul, in northeast France.

On 23 December 1944, Lt. Harold G. Stalnaker was the pilot of a P-47 (#42-76267) aircraft which took off from Toul, France, on an armed reconnaissance mission to the Nonnweiler marshaling yards in Germany. On the return flight, Lt. Stalnaker was killed when his plane was misidentified and shot down by another P-47 in a friendly fire incident. His plane went into a vertical dive, crashing nose-first in a field outside of Kehlen, Luxembourg.

Lt. Harold G. Stalnaker’s remains were not recovered. He was listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Luxembourg American Cemetery. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with 13 Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Purple Heart.

Then, in 1991, workers discovered remnants of the plane while digging a sewer line at Kehlen. A decade later, Lt. Stalnaker’s remains were found and eventually identified.

Lt. Harold G. Stalnaker was buried with full military honors on 7 May 2004 at Arlington National Cemetery.

Sources

1930 United States Federal Census. Spencer, Roane, West Virginia; Page: 7B; ED: 0011

1940 United States Federal Census. Spencer, Roane, West Virginia; Page: 16A; ED: 44-10

U.S., World War II Young American Patriots, 1941-1945. Ancestry.com

U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947. Ancestry.com

U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946. Fold3.com

U.S., Headstone and Interment Records for U.S., Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942-1949. Ancestry.com

http://cstalnaker.com/index.htm

https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/people_details.php?PeopleID=26540

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/hgstalnaker.htm

Find a Grave. Memorials 55956976 and 89319337

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Stories Behind The Stars Contributing Author – Marilyn Murphy

Harold G Stalnaker